Saturday, February 12, 2011

Yasunari Kawabata adaptations at 8th Toronto Japanese Short Film Festival

by Chris MaGee

It's getting close to March and that means one thing for fans of Japanese film in Toronto. It's time for the annual Toronto Japanese Short Film Festival. TJSFF has just announced their 8th annual line-up and once again there's a lot to get excited about.

The centerpiece presentation of this year's fest is the omnibus film "Palm-of-the-Hand Stories". Based on the book of micro-stories by Nobel Prize-winning author Yasunari Kawabata the film is comprised of a series of shorts directed by Tsukasa Kishimoto (above), Nobuyuki Miyake, Takushi Tsubokawa and Yuya Takahashi.

Along with "Palm-of-the-Hand Stories" TJSFF will be bringing short film-maker Isamu Hirabayashi to the city for a programme of his wildly inventive and surreal films. Hirabayashi has had his work screened at 130 film festivals including the Berlin International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and Busan Asian Short Film Festival. This programme will include his films "TEXTISM", "Kibiso", "Conversation with Nature", "A Story Constructed of 17 Pieces of Space and 1 Maggot", "Aramaki" and "Shikasa".

There's a lot more that the 2011 Toronto Japanese Short Film Festival has for audiences this year between March 17th and 20th at the Innis Town Hall Theatre. To check out their full line-up and get ticket details visit their official website here.